Emeryville now open for dinner as restaurants come calling

By Ethan Fletcher

July 17, 2015Updated: July 20, 2015 10:09am

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Sarah Donovan (left), Kimberly Blum and David Lee at Scarlet City Espresso Bar in Emeryville, open since last August. The town known for big-box stores is cultivating a local restaurant scene with cafes, pubs and restaurants. less

Sarah Donovan (left), Kimberly Blum and David Lee at Scarlet City Espresso Bar in Emeryville, open since last August. The town known for big-box stores is cultivating a local restaurant scene with cafes, pubs ... more

An active industrial hub in the first part of the 20th century, this little East Bay pocket (population: 10,000) has, over the last few decades, morphed into one of the Bay Area’s top big-box shopping destinations, home to the likes of Ikea, Home Depot and Best Buy.

The eating options, meanwhile, have mostly followed suit.

Until now.

Emeryville’s culinary scene has been showing signs of life, with independent spots like Honor Kitchen and Cocktails, Prizefighter, Summer Summer Thai, Bureau 510 and Broken Rack pool hall all opening within the past couple of years, and the Emeryville Public Market in the midst of a major redo.

Much of the change is being driven by a boom in housing. New apartments and condominiums, combined with San Francisco’s housing crunch, has led to a flood of new, young residents who, like Ginther, are looking for local eateries to support and call their own.

“I lived in San Francisco for a long time, and we love our neighborhood stuff there,” Ginther says. “I like coming home and not having to get in a car to go to a local bar or deli or restaurant …(and) I don’t want to go to Black Bear Diner.”

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Rotten City Pizza in Emeryville.

Rotten City Pizza in Emeryville.

One of the places he might frequent is Rotten City Pizza. Jonas Bernstein began cooking out of an Emeryville catering kitchen in 1998, then opened Rotten City in 2009 on Hollis Street, where much of the new activity has been centered.

“Back then, there was nothing around here,” he says. “Hollis Street was pretty much just used as a way to cut through the East Bay. Hollis is kind of a cool little thoroughfare now,” he says. “It’s starting to fill up in a good way.”

Bernstein added another choice earlier this month when he opened Branch Line, a watering hole offering upscale bar snacks and cocktails on tap, at 5885 Hollis St. It’s perhaps a telling sign of the city’s dining direction that the bar took over a spot previously occupied by Taco Del Mar.

Bernstein is doubling down on Emeryville because the city has been good to him, he says. Locals appreciate, and support, the independent businesses. Plus, the city’s large daytime workforce provides a big lunchtime boost.

More on Emeryville

In addition to all the retail, Emeryville is home to Pixar Animation Studio, several biotech-biomedical companies and a surprising number of food-related businesses, including Peet’s Coffee, Clif Bar, Jamba Juice, Inna Jam, Starter Bakery and the new Bay Area training center for Counter Culture Coffee.

By some estimates, the city’s daytime population, including all the shoppers, swells to more than 40,000 people on weekdays.

Bernstein isn’t the only one to take notice of Emeryville’s potential.

Ross and Ahna Adair took a chance on what they saw as an underserved Oakland neighborhood when they opened Commonwealth Cafe and Public House on Telegraph Avenue in 2010. The investment paid off as local residents have supported the British-style pub in droves.

They saw a similar opportunity when they decided to open their second spot in Emeryville. Commonwealth Micropub debuted in a petite space just off 40th and Adeline streets earlier this year.

Serving fresh takes on British pub fare (chef-owner Ross is from Scotland), such as Scotch eggs with curried ketchup, vegan bangers and mash, and a full English breakfast for brunch, the Adairs hope to become a local fixture.

“In Oakland, we liked the idea of being a cornerstone for the neighborhood,” says Ahna. “That really worked out well, and we thought there was good evidence that the neighborhood in Emeryville wanted the same thing.”

Jen St. Hilaire was of similar mindset when she and Susanna Handow opened their Scarlet City Espresso Bar last August, just a couple doors down from the micro pub. They serve beer, wine and light cafe fare along with their own coffee, a rich, Italian-style espresso blend that they’ve roasted in West Oakland since 2009.

And as an unabashed science fiction nerd — “The ‘Star Wars’ movies blew me away and then it was ‘Twilight Zone,’ ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’; I even have a little tattoo” — her cafe’s theme was a no-brainer.

But perhaps the biggest indie dining splash in big-box land is yet to come.

Emeryville Public Market, long a hub for cheap lunch eats, is undergoing a major renovation. The idea, says Mark Stefan of developer City Center Realty Partners, is to bring in hipper new food options that can generate the same kind of energy so prevalent in the other parts of the food-obsessed Bay Area — and perhaps even create a center of gravity in a city without a real downtown.

“What we’re trying to do is freshen things up,” Stefan says. “We want to tap into that food culture and bring in unique purveyors that are different from what you’d find in a typical mall. We want it to feel more like Emeryville’s Main Street.”

A few of the established vendors are making the transition, but the balance will be newbies. And if the three that have officially been announced are any indication, the new market could well generate some buzz.

Popular Asian-fusion food truck KoJa Kitchen is launching its second brick-and-mortar location, while Michelin-starred San Francisco chef Carlos Altamirano is planning Chicharon, an 800-square-foot Peruvian stall. The third signee is Shiba Ramen, the debut venture from husband-and-wife team Jake Freed and Hiroko Nakamura.

The ex-chemists-turned-ramen-aficionados were looking all over the East Bay for the perfect spot for their Japanese-style quick-accessible noodle shop, but fell in love with the potential of Emeryville and the public market project in particular.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Hiroko Nakamura, who owns Shiba Ramen in Emeryville, walks with her son past the Public Market Emeryville, which is undergoing renovation.

Shiba is set to open with the first phase of the Public Market project in the fall. A bonus for local residents is that all vendors will stay open until at least 9 p.m., one of the conditions developers set for leasing a stall.

But even as momentum gathers, potential hurdles have appeared. The Emeryville City Council recently passed one of the highest minimum wage hikes in the country, set to go into effect this month. It was a move clearly designed with chain stores in mind, but many of the city’s small food business owners felt hung out to dry. Scarlet City’s St. Hilaire said what several small restaurant owners have expressed publicly and privately:

“We all want to do the right thing by workers, but the issue is that it was pushed through so quickly,” she says. “I think it will be a huge shock to small businesses, which were moving along really well, and that’s too bad.”

Still, it’s hard not to be optimistic about the trajectory of the local dining scene, especially when you look at the city’s progress from a bird’s-eye view.

Ben Yee’s parents operated Eugene’s Ranch House, a classic American greasy spoon diner, for 36 years starting in 1964. Yee, 61, helped run the business until selling it in 2000 to current operators Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Owner Jeffrey Bischoff of Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville stands on top of the restaurant, mimicking the restaurant’s logo.

Owner Jeffrey Bischoff of Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville...

Indicative of the community, Rudy’s co-owner Jeffrey Bischoff still remembers the kindness with which Ben’s parents treated him at Eugene’s, even though he was “a little punk rocker.”

For his part, Yee still lives across the street and says it’s sometimes hard to fathom how much the city has changed since those early days when the clientele was mostly factory workers from surrounding industrial businesses such as the Del Monte cannery, Judson Steel plant and Sherwin-Williams paint factory.

“I’ve seen it change like crazy,” he says. “It used to be all blue-collar guys with their bomber cars and dirty overalls. Now you see joggers, and folks walking with their babies and their dogs. Mom never would have guessed.”

Fresh from nabbing a spot on Esquire magazine’s best bars list, this is the spot for artisan cocktails in Emeryville. Punch bowls are popular, and there’s also a shuffleboard table and excellent outdoor patio. 6702 Hollis St. (near Folger Avenue); (510) 428-1470. www.prizefighterbar.com. Open nightly.

2. Los Moles

From poblano to negro to verde, the moles at this cute little sit-down Mexican restaurant are all made in-house. The kitchen also does nice takes on the standards — tacos, burritos, enchiladas. 1320 65th St. (near Hollis Street); (510) 285-6635. www.losmoles.com. Breakfast Monday-Friday; lunch daily; dinner Tuesday-Sunday.

A shining anchor restaurant for the Emeryville Public Market since 2012, Hot Italian serves a vast range of Italian-style wood-fired thin-crust pizza. The airy, modern interior is also just a good, casual spot to grab a beer or wine. 5959 Shellmound St. (next to Public Market); (510) 922-1369. www.hotitalian.net.Lunch and dinner daily.

Serving up California comfort food, owner Ellen Rosenberg’s restaurant has been the go-to finer-dining destination in Emeryville for 25 years. The historic, beautifully renovated former speakeasy, is worth a visit on its own. 5862 Doyle St. (near 59th Street); (510) 652-6151. www.townhousebarandgrill.com. Lunch Monday-Friday; dinner Monday-Saturday.

7. Honor Kitchen & Cocktails

“The Dude Abides” beacon on the old sign’s marquee is the only way to identify this hidden hipster gem. It’s worth the effort: A help-yourself ice bucket of beer (payment on the honor system) awaits inside the elegant, dark interior, along with good cocktails and hipped-up bar food. 1411 Powell St. (near Hollis Street); (510) 653-8667. www.honoremeryville.com. Dinner Monday-Saturday.

8. Rotten City Pizza

New York-style thin-crust pizza combines with DIY ethos (fresh-ground meatballs, house-cured salami) and the Bay Area focus on fresh, local ingredients. Try the spicy Calabrian for a red pie, the bianco verde with arugula pesto for a white, or the meatball sub. 6613 Hollis St. (near 66th Street); (510) 655-2489. www.rottencitypizza.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

9. Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe

Modeled on a classic American diner, with a punk rock twist, Rudy’s is a longtime neighborhood favorite. You can’t go wrong with the classics — burgers, omelets, French toast — or with eating anything on the patio. 4801 Hollis St. (near Park Avenue); (510) 594-1221. www.iamrudy.com. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

10. Wally’s

Large, cheap portions and a hidden location behind a dive bar make this a Yelp favorite (1,000 reviews and counting). It’s also quite good. Stick with Mediterranean options, such as the gyro wrap and chicken shawarma, on the “Mediterranean & more” menu. 3900 San Pablo Ave. (near 40th Street); (510) 597-1303. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.

11. Commonwealth Micropub

Comfy pub offers super-friendly service to go with fresh takes on British pub fare with a dash of Indian flavors. The Scotch eggs with curried ketchup are a hearty starter, fish and chips are spot-on, and the full English breakfast for Sunday brunch is a hangover’s best friend. 3986 Adeline St. (near 40th Street); (510) 858-5122. www.commonwealthpubs.com. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday; brunch Sunday.